how cool is that? >> that is cool. >> on new year's eve. we'll back to you bob. we're chained together for eternity or an hour. new year's eve. don't forget to set your dvr. a desperate cry for help from a man who feels abandoned by the white house. this is special report. good evening. i'm in for bret baier. as many of you sit down with your family over christmas dinner left overs. a man captured is pleading with the the obama administration to help reunite him with his family. we have the lead story tonight. >> a desperate plea.

haunting images of him looking tired and pale claiming he feels abandoned and forgotten urging his family to get the white house to initiate his release. quote, unless you continue to try to get president barack obama and his administration to actively pursue my release, me may never see each other again. administration officials have said they will not negotiate with al qaeda. marie added to fox, quote, we're working hard to authenticate this latest report. we reiterate our call that warren wine stein be released to his family. from uncertainly throughout the mideast to deadly violence in south sudan led the u.s. to move platoons stationed closer to the line of fire. >> it's hard to believe this administration will wade in much

deeper. look at the administration's posture in the middle east, getting out of afghanistan and iraq. punting on this question of involvement in syria reaching out to iranians we try to prevent conflict. >> in hawaii the president signed into effect the defense spending bill and spent part of his christmas thanking u.s. troops. >> the least we can do is let you know we're grateful to you. >> susan rice was confronted will the full plate of crises by leslie. >> i want to give you a quote a foreign policy expert gave us. syria has been a fees akoe, crypt is fiasco. allies are deteriorating. chinese choose to provoke japan, and we're leaning back. i couldn't disagree with that more.

in syria, chemical weapons are leaving the country for the first time. the situation in the middle east is complicated. t but to paint this with a broad brush and say it's a disaster, it's missing important data points. >> chuck schumer and me then dez are defiant and pushing for more sanctions. on the president's approach to iran, 68% say he has not been tough enough. 12% say about right, 5% say too tough. >> the health care and health care will be dominant issues, foreign policy changes could define the president's legacy in the second term for better or worse. >> we'll see. thank you. >> good to see you. >> you too. more than 130,000 house hhos are still without power in maine

and michigan. utility crews hope to restore power by the end of the weekend. more snow could complicate the efforts. some of that storm is to blame for packages not delivered by christmas day. ups and fedex said they'll offer some future refunds and credits. a large drop in claims for unemployment benefits last week, dow jumped 122 finishing another record high, 50th of this year. s&p 500 rose 9, nasdaq up 12. healthcare.gov and issues with the federal exchange are well documented. things are rough technically and politically. one of the states is hawaii where doug is traveling with the president. >> reporter: the tropical paradise of swaying palms is buffeted by a hurricane of health care woes.

the botched roll out hurt the democratic governor's approval rates. many primaries don't like the way he's doing his job. out of a job is andrews t executive director of the state run exchange. after 257 people signed up for health care a month after the roll out. hawaii's website contract was a warded to the same firm cgi that blew the national roll out. cgi won the contract after the president warned the cgi botched the tax website costing hawaii $50 million to fix. hawaii is not alone. oregon's website has never worked despite the state receiving more exchange grant money than any state except california or new york. sign knees are forced to feel out the paper form. even that has been problematic. late this month came the robo calls. >> if you have not heard from december 23rd, it's unlikely

your application can be processed. harold received one of those calls. >> the governor should have been apprise of the situation. if he wasn't apprise of the situation, then shame on his aids. and if he was, shame on him for not listening to his aids. >> the director of oregon's exchange is on medical leave. maryland home to democratic governor mark o mali had a bad roll out. hopeful, attorney doug gasker, the object of his wrath, lieutenant governor and front runner anthony brown who's also the chairman of the state panel on the health care roll out. california has been touted as a state exchange success story. >> covered california moving along largest state in the union rolling along on a very positive way on it. >> what the house minority leader doesn't say the the

state's enrollment amongst latinos are weak even though they make up half of california. >> much like social security, it's going to take time to work the law out n. a conference kooul call, she said quote, it's going to be a glorious thing. >> we shall see. doug, thank you very much. the family of the 13 year-old who's been declared brain dead after complications following tonsil surgery has not appealed the court decision to take her off life support. the family has until monday to make the final decision. the legal fight banning same sex marriage is in a holding pattern now. the correspondent has the latest in the court battle. >> utah officials hit a bit of a snag in the effort to put a ban on gay marriage on the books when the 10th circuit court in

denver denied the why to temporarily halt gay marriage in the state. they would after peel to the highest court today. there's been a statement where the ag office explained due to necessity with outside council, the filing of appeal may be delayed a few days. it's the intentd of the attorney general's office to file with the supreme court as soon as possible. >> i don't think the state has any grounds to fight this anymore. >> more than 700 same sex couples have received marriage licenses. the crush of apply can'ts began friday when the u.s. district court judge in salt lake city ruled the utah amendment 3 which voters passed states marriage is exclusively between a man and woman is unconstitutional. some county clerks refused to issue paperwork saying they wanted to wait out the legal process. republican governor and ag office informed the the clerks if they didn't comply with the law they'd be held in contempt

of court. >> in any situations, certainly ones of this magnitude, it's important to do due diligence and be prudent. i thought it was only appropriate to wait million they made the ruling. >> utah falls under the jurisdiction of supreme court the justice who can decide on the state or refer to the other justices. the state has the option to request the the full court consider it. >> there are a lot of questions about same sex couples and how we're going to treat them for insurance purposes, for tax purposes, and what no. i think the safe answer now is treat them like everyone else. >> if and when the supreme court receives a request from the state of utah there's no time line as to when a decision will be announced. >> we know you are watching it. we will here in washington as well. thank you. up next, the egyptian government takes a stand against the muslim brother hood. first, here's what our fox

affiliates are covering. fox 32 in chicago, retailers offer deep discounts in hopes of luring customers into post christmas shopping sprees. a lot of stores opened early today. in orlando, covering a christmas day brawl that included up to 600 people outside a movie theater. police had to use pepper spray to control the crowd. several arrests have been made. check this out a live look at los angeles from our fox affiliate. the big story there, the man charged with shooting and killing a tsa agent at los angeles international airport last month pleaded not guilty. paul anthony faces the first degree murder charge and ten other counts. the trial is set for february. that's a look outside the belt way from special report. we'll be right back. marie callender's knows that your favorite dutch apple pie starts with a golden flaky crust, wedges of fresh fuji apples, and a brown sugar streusel on top. so she made her dutch apple pie just like that.

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russian scientists have

concluded the death of ar fat was a natural death not radiation poisons. scientists were asked to determine if plutonium plaid a role in his 2004 death. palestinians suspected israel of poisons him which israel denies. the army supported government battles against the muslim brother hood. things have escalated into a different level. colin powell has the story. >> in a stunning nationwide address, egypt's military backed government declared the once democratly elected muslim brother hood a terrorist group. the unprecedented decision says the activity is terrorism. the move is to justify the

growing bloodshed that accuses the muslim brother hood of stoking. we're at a forefront of confrontation with one of the worst faces of terrorism and we will not stay silent. >> more than a thousand people, mostly brother hood supporters have been killed since the july military coup which removed morsi from power. countless more are injured including five today when a bomb exploded on a bus near cairo. in egypt's delta reej region, an attack killed 15. the military blamed the brother hood for launching a new crack down on the organization arresting dozens. with the military government looking authoritarian, there are growing fears in washington the opportunity for a political compromise and restoring egypt to a democratic system may be

rapidly slipping away. >> we've talked for a long time about concerns of politically motivated arrests and intentions in charges. we don't believe carrying out the actions would move egypt ford. >> the u.s. hopes for a democratic and stable egypt. given the events of the last six months, achieving one of the goals let alone both is looking impossible. >> thank you conner. as ed henry mentioned early, the bam operation has challenges. win dell goaler sat down with one leader questions the current role of the u.s. in the world today. >> more than two decades after helping to tear down the ooirn curtain, former poland president is disappointed president barack obama isn't providing the moral leadership he says the world needs. i thought obama would organize this type of leadership. it didn't happen, and it's too

bad because the world without america's leadership is bad and dangerous. >> the ship builders union solidarity into a political movement that once included a third of his country. serving years in prison and earning a noble prize before becoming the post communist president. a role about his life is best foreign film this year. he says dismantling the union took the toughness of ronald reagan and british prime minister and pope john paul ii born there. he says his role was to stopping too soon. if ididn't do it, then we would have lost. >> even before taking office, he was demanding the soviets remove

tens of thousands of troops from poland. it was a tough sell into to his supporters. >> others were afraid to think of it. even if the states people didn't believe this would be possible. >> his own difficulty in compromising may explain why he lost re-election bid. midway through term in 1993 he formed his own political party. in 1996 he broke solidarity all together. he says he has no regrets. >> it's about great concept of democracy. i won democracy. i didn't lose the democracy. >> now with the cold war over, he looks to washington for hope. >> i hope that america, that we would regain in america, a moral leader because that's what the world needs. the world is without leadership

is dangerous. >> he says the challenge of globization is that half the world wants it based on values and the other half wants to base on free markets. what's needed is an agreement, he says, on secular ten commandments, set of values and principals, religious and non can both subscribe to. still ahead, dick cheney on future of medical invasion and dangers of obamacare. brace yourself. we have brand new fox polls looking at the 2016 contenders.

2016 presidential election may seem far away.

1047 days to be exact. it's never too early to see how top contenders rank in our fox polls. we have the numbers. >> five times more democrats prefer former secretary of state hillary clinton for president. she shows 68% among democrats followed by vice president joe biden a distant second with 12%. several others rang in support in the single digits. >> she's in the neck and neck race for the general election. the challenge for her is not so much the primary but the ultimate contest in november 2016. >> the race for the top of the republican ticket is too tight to even declare a front runner. nj governor chris christie leads 16%, followed by bush 12% and cruz, paul ryan who all have 12.

rand paul has 11. rub i rubio, walker, san tore rum and perry all have single digits. so many prominent figures could create a strong candidate. >> people assume a hard fight hurts a party. it does not necessarily do so. think for example of 2008 when john mccain got his nomination many, many weeks before  obama had a much tighter fight with hillary clinton who won the general election. >> we won't have to wait long since 2014 is a mid election year. >> it's an age old tradition to build up chips running for president in the midterm year. >> another good way to read rates on the right, follow the money. >> there's lmillions of floatin

this political money. it's early to say where the money is going to go. >> one thing to change the entire equation is we don't know for sure who's running yet. that includes the only true front runner hillary clinton who tweeted on tuesday, quote, looking forward to 2014, so much to do. shannon. >> interesting. thank you peter. . now the story of a christmas hero. an off duty lapd bomb officer was driving to work when he saw this car crash on a california free way. the officer rushed to the burning car and pulled the unconscious driver to safety. the driver suffered moderate injuries. officer thompson suffered first and second degree burns. officials say without his quick response, the driver would have died. coming up, our media correspondent sits down to talk

about obamacare. first, the only, russian president vladimir putin on the best of "the grapevine" because only national lets y choose a car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above,nd still pay the mid-size price. (natalie) ooooh, i like your style. (vo) so do we, business pro. so do we. go national. go like a pro.

we are continuing our look back at some of our favorite "grapevine" stories of the year. we bring you one of the most talked about men.

vladimir putin. >> president barack obama against vladimir putin in a battle over the hotel gym. the sun newspaper suggests both put in a request of the fitness room where the summit was held. apparently the presidents did not want to compromise and work out together. ultimately the obama camp won since it turned in a request for the gym first. the russian president then decided to take a chilly swim in the lake outside. >> vladimir putin is one of our favorites on the "grapevine." he has long encouraged russian families to have at least three children. now he's bringing in soulful voices for his fertility campaign "boys to men." he says quote the stylish trio of boys to men is copping to moscow hopefully giving russian men inspiration ahead of

st. valentine's day. he declared a conception holiday in 2007. women that gave birth nine months later were entered to win a refrigerator. how romantic. finally an unscripted moment that appears to have caught vladimir putin off guard when topless protestors appeared in front of both leaders. they were shouting and calling him a dictator before being covered up and being swept away by security. they did not change his assessment of the women apparently. he said quote, i liked it. >> not surprising. former president dick cheney credits advances in medical technology for saving his life but worries obamacare could stifle future invasion.

mark segal sat down with the former president to discuss his new book" heart." >> a lot of victims from the 70s are dead. how come you're a live? >> a combination of thing, obviously a donor, tremendous advances in technology, prayers from people all over the do country, my doctor. i had the first heart attack in '78. most of the things that saved my life had not been invented yet. every time i had a further development of my heart disease, something else had come along to enable us to deal with it. when i had the first heart attack, i had three months to go before the election. 37 years old, i asked my doctor, i said does this mean i'll have

to quit the campaign? he said hard work never killed anybody. if you didn't act like a victim and your attitude was suitably adjusted, an awful lot had to do with your psychological outlook on life. i wanted to live to the fullest and i did. >> i'm concerned about the medical device tax on sales, are you worried about it? >> i'm very worried about it. i think it's a terrible idea. people that invent devices and produce them pay taxes like everybody else. this is a unique tax on the first dollar of revenue to people that invented and creates devices. when you think about the stint for example. i had quadruple bypass in '78. tough surgery. stints weren't available. later on i had problems in the white house, i got a stint, piece of case, outpatient

procedure almost. that development saved the lives of millions of people. wouldn't that have been developed or been slower -- when you tax that, you do serious damage to invasion in our economy. i don't like it when frankly a crowd that couldn't put together a website to say they fixed the health care system. i don't believe it. my guess as we go forward here we'll find there are a lot of train wrecks built into the program nobody knew about. i think if obama had been truthful you cannot keep your health insurance, there's no guarantee to keep your same doctor, i don't think congress would have passed. i this is a joy to read this book. what can americans take away from it? >> i would hope that they would take away from it a message of hope. what's happened in the area of cardiology is happening in other fields as well too.

in cancer, diabetes, and so forth. a lot of serious diseases. we had a remarkable health care system, best devised by man, that we had before obamacare came along. it wasn't perfect, you could find problems in it. it has produced miracles in effect saved the lives of millions of people. i'd like to think people could look at that and say cheney had coronary artery disease, got it as a young man, still able to lead an abnormal life. i was able to function in the ten years in the house, part of the leadership, lead the department of defense during desert storm, served as vice president. so it's doable. it isn't right as a political message. what i take from hit and hope others take from it we have a

wonderous elth care system, best in the world. we need to be careful not to up is back in the game thanks to a new heart and is a living example of what he says we all stand to lose under obamacare. in new york, fox news. coming up, fox all stars analyze president barack obama 's foreign policy and the dangers that lie ahead.

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we are very actively engaged in trying to broker a resolution of the palestinian conflict of months if not years of stalemate. in syria, chemical weapons are leaving the country for the first time. the situation in the middle east is complicated top. paint this with a broad brush and say it's a disaster it's missing a lot of important data points. >> we're talking about the president's foreign policy.

let's do that with our panel. steve hays, senior writer for the weekly standard, columnist for fortune magazine and column insist charles krauthammer. she talks about positive things or tries to highlight positive things. steve, how would you give them a report card at this point? >> it's a disaster. take a step back and think t about the fact she sited the israeli conflict as the high point for the obama administration and syria as a high point. we should be under no illusions. president barack obama ran in 2012 and said in effect i want to refocus on the united states and focus on here at home. in effect telegraphing the fact he didn't want to pay attention to the world. the world it was predictable. the world decide they're not going to let him turn it as much

as he may want to. the problem with the foreign policy, true of this past year and current term, there is no foreign policy. it's ad hoc, moment by moment. our allies don't know when the united states can be counted on, what our policy is day-to-day, week to week, month to month. and our enemies don't know what the president thinking at any time. he draws red lines he's willing to erase, makes threats he's not willing to carry out, gives promise and hope he doesn't carry through. i think she's wrong. it's an unmitigated disaster. i think we're in trouble the next three years. >> as far as our role in the world, a new poll says 53% of americans see united states as less important and less powerful globally as a decade ago. that's the highest percentage since they started asking this question in 1974. >> this is especially true in

the middle east and most underreported story of that part of the world that directly affects our security. the explosion of al qaeda and implosion of iraq, a country that cost 4500 american lives. this administration thought that they could deal with al qaeda by killing ben laden and then use drones and beyond that not getting too involved. the fact is al qaeda is on the rise, flourishing in syria, become a huge problem. syria is a staging ground for al qaeda and affiliate of al qaeda. we opted not to get involved in that situation, not to get involved in helping the rebels two years ago. now the rebels are afraid of al qaeda as much as assad. al qaeda is now in iraq. not only is iraq a client state

of iran, there are 30 to 40 suicide bombings a month. 8,000 iraqis have died this year. that's a country that we fought for for the better part of a decade. we left, left no troops there. that country is on the brink. >> of course now we're still negotiating with afghanistan over a deal we've worked out. the president there is refusing to sign it. there's a dead line december 31st. the president is signaling the president may allow them to go beyond that date. afghanistan is one of the trouble spots we've got going into 2014. >> susan rice talked about data points. let me offer a few. president barack obama gave the cairo speech which was a speech of a apology and it was a f foretelling of retreat. we have managed to make everybody hate us. brother hood, secular army,

seculars to opposition. that's a fete. many libya, obama led from behind, left a disaster. we saw in action the benghazi massacre. west africa would be under al qaeda control if french hadn't stepped in. it was not the united states. in mali. this is all over north africa a disaster. nina indicated, obama boasted about our success in iraq ending the war in iraq. he abandoned iraq. he was a won war. violence was historically low, civil war was over. al qaeda wasn't only defeated but humiliated when the muslims joined with us in defeating al qaeda. now it's revived, controls iraq

and syria. for the first time it's active and dominant in the heart of the middle east. one other data point. obama has managed the miracle of united gulf arabs and israelis in astonishment of how he con seeded the bomb to iran. they have no recourse or information. all this is sprung on them. the gulf arabs feel abandons. israelis have ability to defend themselves. everybody in the middle east is asking where is the united states? all of this is result of a policy, deliberate policy of retreat. when i know america retreat, bad guys fill the the vacuum. exactly what's happened. >> speaking of iran to the green riv revolution. you and i watched it here playing out live. a lot of people say now we have

the nuke deal. democrat and republican senators and people here on the hill, is iran is one of our toughest spots? >> no question it's one of the toest spots. it's the biggest challenge. i think we'll see bad news many in the next year or 18 months. if you go back and look at revoluti revolution, it was exactly a forecast of what was to come. concern at the beginning stages when virtually the entire world was condemning the heavy hand and putting down the revolution, concern at the white house was meddling. they didn't want to meddle. that wasn't a concern for a day or two. this was a concern for weeks. i think you now talked to president advisors and read books written about that moment in president barack obama 's tenner. people say he regrets that and wishes he would have handled that differently. virtually every incident or

relationship we've seen since then, the president acted precisely the same way. that's the problem. he doesn't know what he's doing. >> we've got to leave it here on this topic. next up, never too early to start on 2016 analysis. we've got brand new polls for you coming up. hey, we got our cards, honey! [ ding dong ] [ male announcer ] you can get great discounts on 1-800-flowers.com... oh... [ male announcer ] roadside assistance from allstate, and avis, budget and budget truck. all one place. aarpdiscounts.com.

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in 2016, we have two stories going in. who the republican nominee is, who the democrat nominee is. the story is more complex and in some ways more dramatic on the republican side because even though new jersey governor chris christie is ahead in the poll, it's not by much. it's not decisive. he can't really say "i'm a frontrunner," and have no one dispute it. >> there is no question that

hillary clinton is a heavy favorite to be the democratic nominee. but, strange things happen. >> let's ask our panel if they think anything strange will happen. and we will start out with a brand new fox news poll. this is the 2016 democratic no, ma'am he knee preference. this is among poll folks who self-identified as democrats. 68% say clinton. the next in line is a full, you know, 50 plus points behind, 56, i think. i was not a matt major. 12% vice president biden. we have elizabeth warner and cuomo on the list as well. do you think anyone dethrones her. she was coroner nateed already in 2007 and that didn't go so well. i think that has to be upper most on her mind as she looks at whether to go in or not. that said, i think the likelihood is that she will go in and i think the likelihood is that she will get the nomination. however, not without a large -- a lot of vocal opposition from the left. there is a big segment of

the left that thinks she is too pro-business and will want to go towards elizabeth warren. there is a big part of the left who think she is not pro-environmentalist enough. she gave remarks this fall about appraising the energy boom and united states roundly attacked as being somebody who cares about fossil fuels too much by the anti-fracking crowd. so we are going to hear interest. they you will hear about and a lot of it, the nsa, the drone stuff, all this stuff that's part of the obama administration, the left will make a big issue out of that. so i think it's going to be noisy among the democrats, but i think ultimately if she throws it in, throws her hat in the ring it will be hillary clinton. >> charles, do you think that benghazi will factor in at all in the primary or the general should hillary clinton be the democratic nominee? >> it won't in the primary. it won't even be an issue. i think the status she enjoys among democrats is semidivine. it's not going to be a coronation. it's going to be a worship service. and it will go on for about

six or eight months. i don't think there is any serious challenger there might be noise, but i don't even think that the left that we have talked about is that the significant. it's a noisy left. but, i don't see any impediment on the way to her nomination. but i think she is going to be rather weak if she decides to run, which i think she likely is, she will be a relatively weak opponent. and republicans, i think, are going to have a really good shot at the white house. >> well, let's' talk about that because obviously the polling is much tighter on the republican side. brand new fox news poll. again, these are 2016 g.o.p. presidential nominee preferences from polling done among self-identified republicans. chris christie at the top of the list at 16%. certainly not a commanding lead. have you jed bush behind him at 12. paul ryan at 12. rand paul, not ron paul. i don't think he is running again. we will see. a lot of people think rand paul is going to run too running out of the top five with 11%.

steve, does somebody break out any time soon or is this going to be a blood bath in the primary. >> probably not anybody does break out any time soon. pun one thing you will notice top four or five names on the republican side people who have names that are well-known that everybody knows or people who have been in the news quite a bit lately. ted cruz, chris christie popular. jeb bush the bush name. paul ryan presidential candidate. rand paul has gotten a lot of attention. not the surprise that people leading the republican field at this time. what i think is interesting is to go back and look at what we were saying in december of 2000a in december of 2005, on the republican side, you had rudy giuliani at 30%, john mccain at 22%. condoleezza rice, shortly behind him, and then you had george allen and bill frist. that was the field. it didn't turn out quite that way. on the democratic side hillary clinton was leading both john kerry and john edwards by nearly 30 points each. so, obviously many things can change in the time we have in front of us. on benghazi, and hillary

clinton, i would say that it has already had an effect. if you look at her favorability ratings just a year ago and look at where they are now, it's very clear that it's had an effect. she has dropped some 30 points depending on the poll that you look at. >> i would disagree though that she won't be a strong candidate. i think she will be a very strong candidate. and she also polls a lot of independent women, republican women who are -- who find her candidacy very appealing. i think the other factor to look at here is that the republican party is still in the midst of a civil war. and that's going to play out in the primaries and i think that's going to continue to hurt them in the general election. >> yeah, we will see what happens in 2014. an opportunity to possibly do a little kum ba yah. we will see. thank you, panel. that's it for the panel. stay tuned for a little guy scoring a very big goal.

finally tonight, another installment in our end of the year staff picks. following the final english premier league match of the season in may. retiring players are often given the a chance to address the crowd. during one of the speeches, it was a potential future star who really stole the show. >> [cheers] [ laughter ] >> how cute is that?

he is a very determined little guy. thanks for watching "special report." shannon bream. good night from washington. see you tonight at 9 p.m. eastern for the kelly file but now greta goes "on the record." today is boxing day but it seems like the president and congress has been boxing all year. >> president obama needs to take responsibility and needs to tell the truth. >> the house republicans in particular don't get to demand ransom in exchange for doing their jobs. >> senior white house staff this morning said that the president would rather default on our debt than to sit down and negotiate. >> no we are not going to negotiate. >> we have a president who stopped over the line. >> let's stop the threats and stop the political posturing. >> hello, everyone, i'm dana perino in for greta van susteren. almost a third of the americans think that president obama will go down in history as one of the nation's worst presidents. meanwhile, congress' approval rating is at an all-time low and everyone is pointing fin